"The superior man is catholic and no partizan. The mean man is a partizan and not catholic." (君子周而不比、小人比而不周。) ─ Confucius, The Analects, 2.XIV, translation by James Legge.

Saturday, May 22, 2010

Brave New Life Update

Fr. Thomas Berg, Director of the Westchester Institute for Ethics and the Human Person, suggests that the development "is scientifically fascinating, ethically neutral, and can be a part of something more serious" — New synthetic cell ‘fascinating’ but potentially dangerous, experts caution. Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco, president of the Italian Bishops Conference, called it a "further sign of intelligence, God's gift to understand creation and be able to better govern it."

"Craig Venter's feat in creating a synthetic microorganism is impressive, but not earth-shattering," cautions Michael Cook — The bacterium whose parent is a computer. Quoted is Harvard’s George Church as saying, "The semi-synthetic mycobacterium is not changed from the wild state in any fundamental sense. Printing out a copy of an ancient text isn’t the same as understanding the language."

You're right, but thus far nothing evil has been done with this research. In a perfect (Catholic) world, this would be a stepping stone to some ethical medical breakthrough. In ours, expect some hideous military or industrial application.